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Vino is an open source project that provides users with a standard desktop sharing server for the well known GNOME desktop environment. It can act as a basic VNC (Virtual Network Computing) server.

Designed for GNOME

The program is usually distributed as part of any fresh installation of the GNOME desktop, but if that is not the case for a specific Linux distribution, you can easily install it from the default software channels of the respective operating system.

It is integrated into the GNOME Control Center application, accessible from the “Sharing” entry on the System section. Its key highlights include support for reverse connections, logging, as well as the ability to share a specific folder or your screen.

Getting started with Vino

When enabling screen sharing, users will allow remote users to view or control their desktop by connecting to a specific VNC URI, such as vnc://softpedia-linux. In addition, they can enable or disable remote control, approval for incoming connections, as well as password-based authentication.

On the other hand, the personal file sharing function will allow users to share the pre-defined Public folder from their Home directory on the current network, using the WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) protocol (e.g. dav://softpedia-linux).

Under the hood

Under the hood, we can report that Vino depends on the GTK+ toolkit for the graphical user interface. However, the software uses the libsoup library, and it optionally depends on the NetworkManager, GNOME Keyring, GnuTLS, Avahi, libjpeg, gcrypt, libnotify, and telepathy-glib projects.

Unfortunately, the application has no usable CLI command, except for “vino-passwd,” which can be used to change the application’s password from any terminal emulator.

Bottom line

All in all, Vino is a great addition to the GNOME scene, as it is already integrated into the Control Center app and allows users to enable a capable VNC server with only two mouse clicks.